


Power Down

by whimsicalwombat



Series: Life is a Series of Impossible Choices [4]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Aram does not like being unplugged, Gen, Samar is skeptical of blanket forts, follow up oneshot to a multific, pure silly fluff for no real reason, so this actually was handwritten by candlelight for the sake of something to do, which all came about because I too lost power for a little while last night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 13:19:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14497839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalwombat/pseuds/whimsicalwombat
Summary: The power goes out unexpectedly at the Navabi-Mojtabai household during one seemingly normal Friday evening.Samar, Aram, and the kids come up with a far more fun alternative to their planned movie night.





	Power Down

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, ok, so this wasn't the follow up one shot I was planning on doing, but theeeeeeen my power went out for a little while last night and the beta challenged me by text message to write a one shot on paper, by candlelight, before the lights came back on. 
> 
> It's a real stretch to see where the inspiration for this mini fic came from, I know :p
> 
> I was going to use the blanket fort idea for a Mina Chronicles fic a week or so ago, but I got stuck about halfway through, so have your fluffy, blanket fort goodness here instead!
> 
> If you haven't read Life is What we Make of it, don't stress. This should still make sense for the most part, you just won't get a couple of the smaller references thrown in. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (Story timeline date; Mid July, 2024. So Avi has just turned 5, and Leila is nearly 8)

It seemed a normal enough Friday evening. Samar and Aram ambled around the kitchen, juggling the washing up of dinner dishes with watching Leila doing her spelling homework at the kitchen counter, all the while Avi followed them around with the book he was stubbornly insisting on reading _'right now, Baba,'_  but for which he still needed help with every other word.

It _seemed_ normal enough... And then the lights began to flicker, making Samar glance around the living area, brow furrowed curiously. The refrigerator made a strained whirring noise...

And then all at once, the lights cut out. The refrigerator fell silent. The gleaming numbers on the microwave flashed dark, and the children's program beaming softly in the background from the television, seemed to vanish into thin air.

The power was out.  

Leila glanced around, brow knitted in a tiny frown now that she couldn't see her homework. Aram was already pulling his phone from his trouser pocket, fingertips poised to look up the estimated restoration time, but Samar simply shrugged. She turned, reaching for the candles in the cupboard above her head, and pulling them down to the counter to light them.    
'Looks like we're going to be stuck in the dark until late,' Aram murmured, reading from the tiny screen in his hand that was now his only functioning shred of technology; 'estimated time for the power to come back on isn't until after ten.' Samar gave a wry smile.  
'We'll manage,' she mused back. Avi stared up at her, lip already curling into a small pout as his book fell to dangling from his fingertips. Really, the only member of the household who carried on, unperturbed, was Bandit. The aged, ginger furball snoozed on at the far end of the couch, blissfully unaware of the dilemmas of humans plunged into darkness.  

'But Maman,' Leila spoke up, 'my homework isn't done yet.' The expression on her face grew quickly anxious; she was all too entrenched in her routine of finishing off her homework quickly so that it was done and out of the way before starting anything else, and she was still too young to have figured out the possibility of arguing against the logic of that rule. Samar gave a wry smile, rounding the corner of the counter to press a soft kiss to the top of her _almost_ eight year old's head.  
'Well, ladybug,' she murmured softly, propping a flashlight up against the fruit bowl in front of her so that it shone –albeit lopsidedly- on Leila's list of words to spell; 'you can either finish it with the flashlight or for once, you can do it tomorrow instead.' The anxiously furrowed brow slowly morphed into eyes crinkled with mischievous realisation, and the little girl broke into a wide grin.  

There, that was one issue resolved already. It took everything Samar had not to chuckle at the way her daughter was so easily amused by the notion of bending the rules –or at least _gently,_ anyway.

'This doesn't bother you?' Aram asked. His face contorted with sheer disbelief at how at ease Samar seemed to be with the situation. His brain, by contrast, was already running through a mental checklist of all the diagnostic checks he would have to run on his computer when the power returned, given the impromptu shut down –and then there were all the further checks on the taskforce mainframe if the outage had spread to the Post Office as well. Samar gave her second shrug in as many minutes. It wasn't the first time she'd had to spend a few hours without electricity, and she certainly doubted it would be the last. Not to mention, it was only a few hours. It wasn't even likely to spoil the contents of the fridge, let alone actually kill anyone.    
'Being unplugged for a while has its own charm,' she mused back. 'Come on,' Samar tried to coax him, eyeing the matching dejected looks on both his and their younger child's faces; 'I'm sure you can think of something fun and tech free to do instead.' Aram's lip twitched for a second, but still he remained unimpressed.

He _really_ hated being unplugged. Samar rolled her eyes, torn somewhere halfway between exasperation and amusement.  

It was time to break out the big guns.

'You could build a blanket fort and hide in there with the flashlights,' she slowly suggested. Aram's entire face suddenly lit up, as did Avi's as the pair of them glanced back and forth between each other and Samar.  

Like father, like son. But at least that was another issue resolved.  

Aram slipped his phone back into his pocket and leapt straight for the old family blanket still draped over the back of the couch, Avi quick on his heels, and Leila darting along after them barely a second later again. Samar had just enough time to duck forwards ahead of them, scoop up the ginger furball whose eyes snapped wide open in alarm at the impending invasion of his space, and deposit him in the relative safe zone of the master bedroom, before the trio set to work.  

Just by the time she re-emerged into the living room, the fort was already taking shape against the faint glow of the candles still sitting on the kitchen counter and the flashlights poking out of each of their pockets.  

Samar let out a wry smirk as she watched them. She wasn't always a fan of blanket forts; any built by Aram had a certain tendency to sprawl steadily out of hand until they took over half the house though in this instance, a fort seemed oddly fitting.  

Pegs and elastic bands held together blanket after blanket, that pulled across from the couch to the dining chairs being shuffled around to form the perfect fort frame. It spread further still, to the dining table, the stools, and the counter forming the far edge. In the opposite direction, it spread to one level of the bookshelf, creating the perfect access point from inside the fort to the lowest levels of the shelf where Avi and Leila's books were kept for easier reach. Blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals from bedrooms were dragged inside and arranged strategically for optimum comfort, and then... Practically before Samar could even blink, there were three identical grins poking out at her from the secret back door of the fully formed fort built all the way around her.  

She grabbed the bag of pre-popped popcorn from the counter that was _supposed_ to be reserved for their post-homework movie night, and reluctantly lowered to all fours to crawl in after them.

The inside of the fort was a sight to behold. Pillows were lined up for all four of them to snuggle together, each with their own pile of blankets –including Leila's treasured rose blanket knitted by Mehri so long ago. Each pile and every entrance to the fort was guarded by stuffed critters of all shapes and sizes, with Leila's Mr Spikes and Avi's tiger –named early on by Aram as Mr Stripes 'for the sake of consistency'- taking pride of place right in the middle. Aram even had two of the flashlights somehow strung up with elastic bands from the backs of the dining chairs so that they cast a soft, warm glow over the entire interior.

Really, it was surprisingly cosy.  

Samar settled into the pile marked with her own pillow beside Aram's, the two kids then instantly clambering across to nestle in between them. Leila popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth and broke into a grin just as Avi gently pushed his book back into Samar's hands.  

She opened it up to the very first age, her voice low and soft as she began to read.

Aram, making use of the flashlight glow and blanket walls, even used his hands as shadow puppets to act out the story as she spoke, much to the kids' delight.  

Avi, still nestled into Aram's chest, fell asleep first, before Leila followed suit. Samar and Aram remained still, enjoying that quiet peacefulness of simply resting there together, holding their little ones close rather than moving. Samar tilted her head, resting it against Aram's shoulder.

Unbeknownst to all of them, even Bandit crept in under the blankets, quietly curling back up by Samar's feet, and letting out a soft, steady  purr  under his breath. 

Samar's eyes slowly began to droop...

...And then the microwave beeped and the fridge began to whir and the lights from the kitchen began to creep through the cracks in the soft, blanket walls, and Samar's eyes snapped wide open again with a jump. Aram met her gaze, both of them pausing just for a split second to glance at the two tiny, sound asleep bodies wedged in between them. His eyes crinkled again, and he broke into a sheepish grin.  
'We _could_ just stay in here until morning,' he whispered. Samar simply rolled her eyes, shaking her head in mock exasperation.  
'And where else were you thinking we would go, exactly?' She quietly chuckled back. Her head rested back against his shoulder, and his rested gently atop hers. Aram pressed a soft kiss to her mess of dark curls, as her eyes fell softly closed.

_Huh._ Maybe there _was_ a certain charm to being unplugged for a while.  

**Author's Note:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/gp/152300685@N03/X35E3n)


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